Thanks everyone,This laser did not use any polulu drivers mostly because I bought a set of Kelings before I knew about the alternatives. I have a few of the polulu a4988 boards that I will be using for another project that work well.

For wiring up the laser tube, I needed to extend both wires. I picked up some high voltage silicone wire from a local electronics place for a few bucks. It was rated to only 10,000V so I covered it with some plastic tubing and haven't had a problem. For the ground wire I just used normal 24 gauge. To connect the wires to the tube I stripped an inch or so and wrapped it around the metal pins. I then wrapped a bunch of electrical tape around it.

In terms of cost I didn't completely know what I was doing so I was left with some stuff I didn't end up using and the 2.0 build is cheaper than the 1.0 build. I was off with my 1000$ estimate but assuming a bare minimum build I think 1300$ is plausible.

I think it is fair to estimate 330$ for the laser, 26$ for drivers, 120$ for optics, 400 for kits (skiping the electronics and skins) and 300$ for extrusions = 1200$. If you have the electronics experience to wire it all up to mach3 thats pretty much all you need.

For doing a cheap build it really just comes down to skippping everything that isnt completely essential and adding it later if you really need it. If you can salvage the power supplies and other miscelaneous stuff even better.

Here is just runthrough of a few of the things I have made with my laser.

First up is an acrylic enclosure for a charger circuit. I glued it pretty sloppily but it still looks fine. Acrylic cuts well but gluing it can be a problem because the cuts can taper (so the edges aren't 90 degrees) and the heat can introduce thermal stress which will craze when exposed to a solvent. Apparently these problems are pretty widespread with extruded acrylic (what I have) but cast acrylic works better.

I'm heading back to university and wanted to bring some of my RC helicopters with me so I picked up some foam and did a test cut:Half inch foam cuts insanely fast and easily and is very straight. The laser could probably do one inch foam quite well. The patterns were traced from the side-views of the helicopters.

I tried to fit everything in a case:I hid repair parts and batteries behind the divider. I'm very happy with how the case turned out.

I figured if I have a laser I might as well make some laser cut business cards. I'm not really a graphics guy but I like them:

Lastly, I wasn't even aware lasers could engrave before starting this project and I have no plans for engraving but I figured I might as well use the test sample image. I stopped it short because it wasn't going to finish on my 1x2 anyways.I went full speed on really crappy wood (literally the only piece of wood I have) but quality is still incredible.

The laser cuts through it like butter, its mostly air so it doesn't even smell that bad. Surprisingly the cut is completely perpendicular so you don't have the "cone" effect you get with acrylic. I used the normal lens which has a focal length of 1.5" or 2.5" (I really don't remember).